1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet recording device and a method for controlling the inkjet recording device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In inkjet recording apparatuses, ink which adheres to a face surface (a surface of an ejection port) of a recording head including the ejection port (a nozzle) which ejects ink disturbs normal ink ejection in some cases. In particular, when a plurality of inks which mutually have reactive properties are used, when an image is formed using reaction liquid and ink, or when ink is solidified by ultraviolet rays, micro waves, or heat so that toughness is improved, removal of ink which adheres to the face surface is difficult. In order to address a state in which defect of ejection may be invited due to ink which adheres to a face surface, general inkjet recording apparatuses include a wiping member which wipes ink which adheres to a face surface. In general, a wiper made of rubber is used as the wiping member. The wiper performs an operation of wiping a face surface so as to sweep ink away (wiping) (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-157090). As an example, a wiper is disposed on a movement track of a face surface of a recording head, and the face surface is wiped by the wiper when the recording head moves from a recording region to a waiting position. When the wiping operation is not to be performed, the wiper moves to a retracting position so as not to make contact with the face surface. With this configuration, the face surface may be wiped without deteriorating throughput of a recording operation.
However, in some types of ink, it is difficult to wipe a face surface only by the wiping operation since liquid components of ink which adheres to the face surface evaporates before the wiping operation is performed. Specifically, high wiping performance such as strong wiping on a face surface is requested depending on types of ink when compared with a case where normal ink is used.
When residues of solidified ink tend to remain on the face surface even after the wiping operation, an absorbent wiping member of a sheet shape may be used. An inkjet recording apparatus including a mechanism of wiping a face surface by making such a sheet wiping member come contact with the face surface has been proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-300329. Furthermore, an inkjet recording apparatus in which cleaning liquid is supplied to a wiper so that improved wiping performance is attained has been proposed in Japanese Patent No. 2962964.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-300329, in the wiping mechanism including the absorbent wiping member of a sheet shape, in general, the wiping member is accommodated in a body of the recording apparatus in a rolled state, and the wiping member is successively reeled out so as to be used for an operation of wiping the face surface. A portion which has been used by the wiping operation and has absorbed ink is moved from a position to be contact with the face surface and an unused portion is newly supplied to the position to be contact with the face surface so as to stand by for the next wiping operation. Thereafter, when the entire accommodated wiping member is reeled out and used, the used wiping member is detached and a new wiping member is attached to the body of the recording apparatus instead. In this configuration, when an unused portion of the wiping member accommodated in the recording apparatus becomes small, the following problems arise.
First, in a case where a wiping operation is performed during a recording operation, a wiping member may run out during the recording operation after a printing job is newly started. In general, in a recording operation, image data to be recorded is converted into recording data and the recording data is supplied from a printer driver of a host computer to an inkjet recording apparatus. Then the inkjet recording apparatus performs a recording operation while colors to be ejected, nozzles, and the number of paths are controlled in accordance with the received recording data. However, in particular, a large inkjet recording apparatus deals with a large amount of data representing an image to be formed in many cases, and therefore, a long period of time is used by such an inkjet recording apparatus to receive entire recording data depending on capability of the host computer or communication environment. If recording is to be started after the entire recording data is received, the inkjet recording apparatus enters a waiting state until the reception is completed, and therefore, throughput is lowered. Therefore, such a large inkjet recording apparatus starts recording when receiving a predetermined amount of recording data instead of the entire recording data, and thereafter, the large inkjet recording apparatus performs an operation of receiving the recording data and a recording operation in parallel in many cases. In this case, there arises the problem in that a wiping member runs out during the recording operation as described above. Specifically, since the recording operation is started before the entire recording data is received, the total number of times the wiping operation is performed during the recording operation is not obtained when the recording operation is started. Therefore, an amount of use of the wiping member in the recording operation has not been determined, and if a remaining amount of an unused portion of the wiping member is small, the wiping member may run out during the recording operation. If the wiping member runs out, the recording operation is not continued, and therefore, the recording operation is temporarily stopped when the remaining amount of the unused portion of the wiping member becomes small and the user is prompted to replace the wiping member. However, if the recording operation is interrupted in the inkjet recording apparatus, different colors may be obtained in an image before and after the interruption of the recording operation and quality of the image may be deteriorated.
Second, an amount of a waste unused portion of the wiping member may be increased. In a case where the total number of times the wiping operation is performed during the recording operation is calculated in advance, an amount of an unused portion of the wiping member accommodated in the inkjet recording apparatus may not be enough for an amount of the wiping member to be used. In this case, in order to prevent the wiping member from running out during the recording operation, the wiping member is replaced by a new one before the recording operation is started even when an unused portion remains. Therefore, the wiping member including the unused portion is discarded. In particular, when large image data is to be recorded, and therefore, a large amount of a wiping member is used by one recording operation, even when an unused portion of the wiping member is comparatively large, the wiping member is replaced by a new one if the unused portion of the wiping member is slightly short of an amount of the wiping member to be used for one recording operation. Therefore, a large amount of an unused portion of the wiping member is discarded, resulting in large waste of cost and sources. This problem may arise when a recording operation is started after entire recording data is received so that an amount of the wiping member to be used is determined while deterioration of throughput is accepted.